Commentary
When we wonder why the killer did it, the killer wins
by Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public RadioHere's some advice for you today, as the families of Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto bury the first graders shot to death with 18 classmates in Connecticut on Friday: Quit wondering why it happened.
Because that's exactly why those children died. So that you would wonder. So that you would spend days or weeks rolling this over in your mind, puzzling over the horror as you drank a cup of coffee, seeing that grainy picture in your mind of the mop-topped killer as a junior high kid. So you'd look at a file of children coming out of school wondering what monster might lurk among them.
There isn't going to be a note from beyond the grave. There isn't going to be a tell-tale file on his hard drive, a voice mail message left of some acquaintance's cell phone. No damning psychological analysis neglected in a county social worker's file drawer.
The meaning of this horror was written in the blood of six and seven-year-old boys and girls, cowering in their classroom before the roar of semi-automatic rifle fire.
You know why he did it.
Because the bar was already set intolerably high at Virginia Tech in 2007. There, 32 died and 17 others were left marked for life. But those were college kids. And there's just no way in this day and age to get ahold of, and detonate, enough explosives to top the 1927 horror in the Bath School Bombing. Thirty-eight kids died at a stroke that day. The numbers are just hard to match anymore, now that kids know to hide, to run, to barricade the door and pray, to lock down. You've got to really reach to make your mark in butchery anymore.
In an age when worldwide fame is scarcely farther away than a tap on the REC button, when going viral is the mark of achievement, your prospects as an awkward, introverted, skinny kid from the suburbs probably don't look real great. You can barely make it out of high school. Your mom shows off rifles to the landscaper in the yard. Your older brother is doing well at Ernst & Young. You aren't going to be a finalist on "The Voice."
But the annals of history — the lights of fame — are nonetheless in your grasp. You just need to grow, unnoticed, more senselessly monstrous than the last guy. Do it right, and you'll be a cable TV star for weeks. Top Twitter. Your name will ring out in the halls of Congress, your exploits will fill the front page of the New York Times.
Every time that killer's name is repeated, he wins. Every time you ponder his meaning, he wins.
Remember those kids instead. Think about their teachers. Think about principal Dawn Hochsprung hearing the glass in the front of her school shattering: She was a schoolteacher, for God's sake. A middle-aged schoolteacher wrapping up her work week, who, from what we know so far, heard the shots and ran to the sound of the guns. My God, the love of that woman. For a building full of strangers' kids. It's blinding, it shines so brightly.
Try holding that in your heart, instead, every time you're tempted to wonder why. Remember that for the rest of your life. That's what you can do right now to stop this from happening again.
Comments (5)
This is the most self-contradicting article I have ever read in my life. The author tells us to quit worrying about why the killer did it, and then he tells us: for fame. (Where the author obtains his insight into the killer's motivation is unknown.) This article accomplishes nothing more than to pay attention to the tragedy, which, by the writer's own logic, is what the killer wanted.
Great commentary and I would add I'm disappointed in the news media coverage of these tragic events, especially public radio. The reporting should be downplayed & very limited. No report should be aired until the basic facts are known....leave the scary headlines to FOX, et al. I think the Werther - copy cat - effect (Wikipedia: University of London psychologist Alex Mesoudi, recommends reporters to follow the sort of guidelines the World Health Organization and others endorse for coverage of any suicide: Use extreme restraint in covering these deaths — keep the word "suicide" out of the headline, don't romanticize the death, and limit the number of stories.[22] Photography, pictures, visual images or film depicting such cases should not be made public" (Turkey). applies to these shooting massacres as well as to suicide. I expect there will be another copy cat shooting before the end of this year.
Thank goodness! A media person with enough sense to understand the disservice we do when we ask "Why?" To think that there is a legitimate reason to commit so heinous an act, to think that a reasoning, thoughtful man sat down and asked himself if killing a roomful of children is the logical answer to one of life's dilemmas... Indeed, just wondering 'why' is as crazy as the men who have these attention-craving outbursts. We must stop rewarding these nuts with legitimate questions and a reasoned approach. We must not print their names or show their pictures or interview the parents or neighbors. When we do, we grant their actions with legitimacy that empowers the next lunatic. They should be refered to as mentally disturbed and crazy, etc., in terms that lack any positive connotations.
Gun control is the obvious answer, and along with some sanity brought to that issue, the media can help by treating these acts as incomprehensible and the actors as mentally sick and deranged.
done. if media were to restrict itself to 90% facts and 10% opinion, analysis and guess ... the public would have massively more data on which to base its own ideas. as it is .. we piggy back, extrapolate, spin on top of boot-strapping, interpretation, and structured partial information.
When we do not ask "why," society loses. This is a much more complicated issue than Mr. Nelson states. It is a societal issue as well as a mental health issue. We are a violent and uncaring society in many ways and we need to address how to change. I have seen children damaged too many times, wondered too many times how they would cope as adults. Reporting our concerns does not necessarily mean help is available. It is myopic to say the shooter was a monster and wanted us to “wonder.”
I agree there is journalism and there is sensationalism, and the two should never mix. Journalism can question, and teach.
As a teacher, I have no problem holding the children and the teachers who were murdered that terrible day foremost in my heart and mind. Forever. I find it insulting that anyone would suggest it could be any other way.
Post a comment
Please be civil, brief and relevant.
E-mail addresses are never displayed but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. MPR reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air with attribution. Please read the Terms and Conditions before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to Minnesota Public Radio. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited e-mail and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
